Cutting and stacking sheet-metal blanks



J. E. GUNTER cu'rnne mm sucxme smam METAL amnxs Filed Jan. 6, 1923 Patented May 19, 1925.

UNITED STATES 1,538,322 PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES EDW. GUNTER, 0F BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, AS SIGNOR T0 SOUTHERN CAN COMPANY, 01 BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, A CORPORATION OF MARYLAND.

CUTTING AND STACKING SHEET-METAL BLANKS.

Application filed January 6, 1923. Serial- No. 611,090.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, JAMES E. GUNTER, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city of Baltimore, andv State of Maryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cutting and Stacking Sheet-Metal Blanks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact dcscription'of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

This invention relates to a method for cutting and stacking sheet metal blanks and also to the mechanism for performing the method.

The object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for cutting up large sheets of metal into a number of blanks and for stacking the blanks in piles that can be readily separated one from another.

In the usual practice when running large pieces of sheet metal through a slitting mechanism the sheet is severed into small blanks which pass forward to a receiving table on which the sheets are piled. It invariably occurs that the severed sheets do not pass to the receiving table with great accuracy so that the various seriesof blanks of one sheet fail to register with the blanks of the previous sheet by anamount varying from a thirty-second of an inch to an inch or more. In consequence of this inaccuracy the blanks of one pile become so interlocked with the blanks of each adjacent pile that it requires great force and quite a bit of skill to separate the piles if they have accumulated to any considerable extent Therefore it is quite customary to remove the blanks with great frequency causing a very unnecessary amount of hand labor.

By means of the present invention the usual types of slitting machines may be used without modification but between the slitters and the receiving table I erect a series of guide rolls to receive the blanks from the cutters and to tilt them laterally, that is, lower one side edge of the blank with respect to the other, and pass them on in this way to the receiving table which is modified only by the provision of a series of longitudinal partitions and by small fillets in the corner of each bin to preserve the tilting imparted to the blanks by the guides. By this means all of the blanks cut from a single piece may move directly forward and although the various piles take up no more space in width than the original sheet the piles are each entirely separated from one another so that any pile may be removed Without any difficulty whatsoever.

The slitting mechanism consists in a plurality of cooperating cutters 10 and 11 mounted respectively on a lower shaft 12 and a parallel shaft 14 each power driven and preferably interconnected by gearing. o particular description of this mechanism 15 necessary as it is of an extremely old type. The guide roll shaft 15 is preferably parallel to and on a line with the main shaft 12 and the guide rolls 16 are preferably of the same greatest diameter as the diameter of the cutters. As best seen in Fig. 1 each of the guide rolls consists of a pair of opposed cones one of which, as 17, is preferably much wider than the other,-as 18, and has a much smaller angle at its apex.

In the preferred form as shownin Fig. 1, the blank of sheet metal as indicated by the dotted lines 20 (the lines being dotted for the reason that these lines represent the sheet of metal in a plane at right angles to the .plane of the paper) rests upon the outer rim or margin 21 of the cone 18 and upon the rounded margin 22 of the cone 17. The pull of gravity, aided as it is by the rotation of the shaft 15, causes the blanks 20 to slide into contact with the conical surfaces of the cones 18 and secures very accurate registry of the blanks in the bins. A duplicate parallel set of guide rolls 16 may be provided if desired, but in practice it has been found that the device works excellently with but the one series of rolls.

The receiving table has the usual rear wall 25 but has added to it a series of partitions such as 26 which are spaced apart from center line to center line the width of the blanks and each bin formed by the bed or base 27 is provided with a fillet 28 of such type as to preserve the angle of .tilt as given by the guide rolls. i

In the modification shown in Fig. 3 the rolls are very slightly altered by changing the angle of the cone 17 to that shown as 17 in the figure so that when using this modification the blank lies parallel with the conical surface of the cone 17 The operation of the device is very simple: The large pieces of sheet metal are fed one at a time between the cutters 10 and 11 which slits them longitudinally into a plurality of relatively small blanks. These blanks still parallel and preserving the form of the original sheet pass to the guide rolls 16 which are one more in number than the number of blanks cut from the piece. Upon striking these rolls one side edge of each blank engages the rounded end 21 of the larger cone and the other end of the blank being entirely unsupported, the blank by this time having left the cutters, falls by gravity against the smaller diameter cone 17 and shifts until it strikes the face 18 in case it does not originally strike such face. The thus-tilted blanks pass now onward over the guide rolls which may be loose but are preferably power driven and into the respective bins, the first blank of a set resting with one edge on the base 27 of the receiving table and with its other and higher edge on the fillet 28 which is of such height above the base 27 as to preserve or increase the angle of tilt given by the guide rolls, and the remaining sheets simply pile thereon. Since each pile is entirely separate from every other pile the piles may be readily removed at any convenient time and frequent handling is entirely obviated.

What I claim is:

1. The combination with a partitioned receiving table, of a plurality of guide rolls,- each guide roll having two parallel guiding surfaces one of greater diameter than the other for supporting the adjacent edges of two blanks in difierent planes.

2. In combination, a partitioned receiving table, means adjacent the table for tilting sheet metal blanks as they approach the bins formed by the partitions of said table, and

means for maintaining the blanks tilted in the bins.

3. In combination, a receiving table, and tilting mechanism for guiding the blanks to the table, the said guiding means consisting of a pluralityof rollers each having two guiding surfaces of different diameters, the smaller guiding surface of one roll cooperating with the larger diameter guiding surface of an adjacent roll to tilt a blank laterally as it approaches the table.

4. The method of stacking sheet metal blanks which consists in laterally tilting the blanks as they approach the place of storage and stacking the blanks with one side edge higher than the other side edge and with a portion of the bottom of the lowermost blank spaced from the surface of the place of storage.

5. The method of stacking sheet metal blanks, which'consists in feeding a. series of sheets toward a place of storage and passing the proximate edges of each two adjacent sheets over a supporting member with said edges vertically spaced from each other to tilt each sheet of the series laterally, and then spacing said tilted sheets in their place of storage.

6. In a sheet metal blank stacking mechanism, the combination of a partitioned receiving table, and a plurality of guide rollers each supporting the proximate edges of two adjacent blanks.

7. In a sheet metal blank stacking mechanism, the combination of a receiving table, and a plurality of guide rollers each having two blank supporting surfaces supporting the proximate edge portions of adjacent blanks one of said surfaces being greater in diameter than the other whereby adjacent rolls will tilt the blanks.

8. In a sheet metal blank stacking mechanism, the combination of a receiving table, and a plurality of comparatively narrow guide rollers, said rollers being of less width than the individual blanks, and each pair of adjacent rollers cooperating to support a blank.

JAMES EDW GUNTER. 

